Viktor Gyokeres boosted by teammates’ vow on boss who never played him in Premier League

Viktor Gyokeres has found the form to put Sweden on the cusp of World Cup qualification – but that’s no surprise to Jesper Karlstrom.

The Arsenal striker fired his nation into the playoff final against Poland with a stunning hat-trick to down Ukraine 3-1.

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Gyokeres’ treble took his total for the season to 19 goals for club and country, with 11 of his strikes coming in the Premier League.

The 27-year-old has enjoyed a remarkable start to 2026, having initially struggled to settle following his £55million move to Arsenal.

Gyokeres ‘will just go until it works’

Gyokeres scored just two Premier League goals from September 13 until the end of January, but has since enjoyed a flurry of form.

And his Sweden teammate Karlstrom predicted as much in an interview with talkSPORT during Udinese’s media day event.

“It’s really nice to see him [perform like this],” the Serie A club’s captain said earlier this month.

“But I think in the national team, he always performed good.

“So even though he struggled a little bit in the beginning, I wasn’t that worried.

“For him, I know him really good and what kind of person he is. He will just go until it works. We all know his qualities.

“But it’s really nice to see that he will come into this camp with confidence.”

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Gyokeres teammate knew goals ‘would come’

Gyokeres may have been worried about reuniting with Graham Potter, who did not give him a single minute of Premier League action when the pair were at Brighton together.

Injury ruled him out of the Englishman’s first two games in charge of Sweden in November, meaning he has to wait for his chance.

But a hat-trick against Ukraine more than silenced the doubters, and Karlstrom was already predicting Gyokeres to explode in front of goal.

“You can ask Keinan Davis how good I spoke about it,” he added to talkSPORT. “I knew the goals, they would come.”

Karlstrom knows a thing or two about playing with elite Sweden strikers, having shared a dressing room with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

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That connection was particularly special to the Udinese skipper, who grew up with a poster of the ex-Manchester United star on his wall.

Karlstrom admitted he never told Ibrahimović that fact, and instead attempted to play it cool when on Sweden duty together.

“I didn’t want to be going after him all the time, trying to be his friend,” he told talkSPORT.com.

“It was amazing to play with him, to see him this close on the pitch. When we spoke a few times, he probably has a lot of people coming after him and just trying to be his friend.

“I tried to… not that he had to come big with me but just in a natural way.” Play it cool? “Yeah, a little bit like that.”